On July 1, 1908, outside the mouth of Wu Li, Shanghai.

Sixteen battleships with white broadside painted on their sides were quietly moored, their ships like mountains, their masts like forests, and their guns like branches.

The ships were covered in colorful pennants from bow to stern, and huge star-striped flags fluttered on the mastheads and bow and stern – yes, this huge fleet came from the United States of America, and history will remember the magnificent name of this fleet: The Great White Fleet.

The 16 10,000-ton giant ships, with 4 ships as a team, joined each other from end to end, anchored and turned off the fire, forming a 5-kilometer steel wall along the coastline on the side of Wulikou. Within the long wall, there are four large supply ships and six torpedo destroyers that are also painted in gorgeous white.

"This rice grain fried country is really done."

Vice Admiral Sa Zhenbing, commander of the Navy's Zhenyang Fleet, stood solemnly on the port side flybridge of the battleship "Beiyue" and looked at the battleship mountain range outside Haikou with some disdain.

About 11 months earlier, on August 1, 1907, in the Chesapeake Bay, President Roosevelt and visiting Imperial Chinese Crown Princess, Liu Qianhua, boarded the Mayflower yacht to inspect a neat line of 16 of America's newest and greatest battleships. On the same day, the "Great White Fleet" with these 16 battleships as the core officially set sail and began a conspicuous "grand parade" around the world that shook the whole world.

The huge sea fortresses that took on this magnificent mission will leave their glorious names in the history books: BB5 "Chil Shaji", BB6 "Kentucky", BB7 "Illinois", BB8 "Alabama", BB9 "Wisconsin", BB11 "Missouri", BB12 "Ohio", BB13 "Virginia", BB15 "Georgia", BB16 "New Jersey", BB17 "Rhode Island", BB18 "Connecticut" (flagship)... …

All 16 battleships were organized into two squadrons, each of which was divided into two divisions, for a total of four detachments of four battleships each, with Rear Admiral Loebley•D•Evans as the commander-in-chief.

The first leg of the voyage was from the Chesapeake Bay to San Francisco on the west coast, and the fleet stopped and stopped, visiting Port of Spain in Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Punta Arenas in Chile, Callao in Peru, Magdanara Bay in Mexico, and finally arrived in San Francisco on January 6, 1908, which lasted nearly five months.

After nearly two months of rest in San Francisco, the Great White Fleet was taken over by Rear Admiral Charles•S•Sperry, and began the second leg of its voyage to Asia on March 7, crossing the Pacific Ocean, the fleet first stopped in Hawaii for supplies, and then visited Auckland in New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne and Albany in Australia, arrived in Manila on June 4, and after a short rest, set off on June 12 to begin its visit in Asia. On June 20 the fleet arrived in Yokohama, Japan, where it stayed until the 27th, and then on July 1 it arrived in Shanghai, China, the most important place of the fleet's Asian journey.

What awaits them here?

Ships and wooden galleons of all kinds came and went near the fleet, and the sailors of all countries on board cast their gazes full of emotions at these dazzling white battleships...... Astonished? Shock? Envy? Jealous? Hostile?

It doesn't matter, no matter what you think of us, there is no doubt about our strength!

Perhaps it was with this idea that the officers and men of the U.S. Navy on the battleship faced those ignorant sailors with such arrogance and pity.

However, when they saw the Chinese Navy's newest battleship, the Beiyue, most people's proud, lofty mood collapsed in an instant.

Look at what a real battleship is! Keep your eyes open and see clearly!

The smooth hull, the tall and beautiful semi-integrated bridge that looks like a pagoda from the front, the two surprisingly long rangefinder mirror tubes on the top of the foremast, the four twin main gun turrets (two backpacks in the front and rear) that look so thick and heavy, the neatly arranged secondary gun profiles on the sides, and the two new chimneys with wide and flat smoke hoods are far superior to the old-fashioned cylindrical chimneys on American ships in terms of visual appearance, and also imply that the ship's power must not be under people......

There are more than 1 such battleships! The US warships were greeted by two new warships of the same type -- the "Beiyue" with the board number 13 and the "Nanyue" with the board number 14.

Rear Admiral Sperry, commander of the US fleet, carefully examined the two Chinese warships in the telescope and exclaimed: "My God...... It's a lot bigger than the 'South Carolina' we're still testing, and I think it's at least 20,000 tons!" Look at the neat and thick four turrets, and the rangefinder that towers up above - that means that the four turrets have the ability to fire in one spot, the hull is surprisingly large, and the odd chimney should be far superior to any ship in the fleet...... 1 How many of my ships can you handle? Two ships? Four? Are the Chinese already far ahead of us in terms of the quality of battleships? ”

There was no doubt that Rear Admiral Sperry knew very well what was inside the glamorous and flamboyant fleet he led.

Look at the newest and largest Connecticut class in the fleet: 16,000 tons, 18 knots, two twin 12-inch (305 mm) main gun turrets that could only be aimed at firing alone, four 8-inch (203 mm) secondary gun turrets that could also be aimed at firing alone, and 12 7-inch guns mounted in the gun frame (the largest rapid-fire gun capable of producing under technical conditions at the time). Armor? The thickness of the main armor belt was 98-220 mm, the horizontal part of the armored deck was 36 mm thick, the inclined part of the dome connecting the main armor belt to the armored deck was 73 mm thick, in addition, the main turret was 294 mm thick in the front, 196 mm on the sides and rear, and 61 mm on the top.

Although the detailed data on China's new battleship is not yet known, just from the appearance, Sperry is enough to feel the gap between the two sides.

Circumnavigating most of the American continent and crossing the choppy Pacific Ocean to this mysterious ancient country of the East, is it to suffer such a heavy blow?

Sperry shook his head calmly.

The Americans are not afraid of being attacked, they will only become more and more courageous, and the spirit of America is more dazzling and eternal than the appearance of the Great White Fleet.

Then, according to the predetermined plan, we should cherish the three weeks and devote 100 percent energy to dealing with them, whether it is a visit or a joint exercise, and understand the most powerful and dangerous imaginary enemy of the United States and the US Navy in the Pacific -- this is precisely the most important purpose of the Great White Fleet's visit to Asia.

At this moment, on the "Beiyue" a thousand meters away, Vice Admiral Sa Zhenbing's thoughts coincided with Rear Admiral Sperry.

On the shore and on the decks of passing ships, there were countless people watching the excitement, including the young British Vice Consul in Shanghai, Brand, the dashing British Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Stineau, and the slightly chubby Lieutenant Commander Clinthey.

"Lieutenant Colonel Stineau, what do you see? Crazy Americans, or Chinese who always surprise us? Brand leaned comfortably on the deck chair of the yacht, with a cigar in his hand.

This small yacht, which is less than 30 meters long, was specially rented by the British consul to watch the Great White Fleet, but the consul himself suddenly fainted before departure, and Vice Consul Brand naturally would not let go of this good opportunity, according to the original plan, he took his old friends Lieutenant Commander Stineau and Lieutenant Colonel Clinthey on the yacht, and drove to the anchorage of the Great White Fleet with a half-mocking and half-vigilant mood.

At this time, 16 American battleships and two new Chinese battleships were not far away, and several Chinese patrol boats diligently circled around, and half an hour ago, a patrol boat boarded the yacht, checked the documents, and warned the British who were too curious: "Do you see the cordon?" Stay away from warships, or you will bear the consequences. ”

The cordon is marked by colored ropes connected between a number of pontoons, and from time to time a small boat approaches a pontoon to set up a light mark for the night cordon.

Brand just shrugged his shoulders and smiled mockingly at Stineau, "I understand them, no one wants another Maine incident. ”

Stineau's response at the time was: "I think they also understand that China is not Spain, and Shanghai is not Cuba. ”

In 1898, the U.S. battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in the port of Havana, Cuba, and the United States used this as an excuse to declare war on Spain and annex Cuba and the Philippines, which were formerly part of Spain, only ten years earlier.

Lieutenant Colonel Stineau was concentrating on observing the Chinese and American warships from the telescope at this time, and when he heard Brand ask him, he still held on to the binoculars: "It is not strange that those uneducated American peasants do such stupid things, how can a truly tasteful country cobble together the old capital ships of the whole country to engage in such a boring global parade?" In my opinion, the samba carnival in Brazil is more interesting than this. ”

"Then why are you still watching?"

"I'm looking at the surprises brought to us by the Chinese, and you can see how good the ship is, comparable to our 'Dreadnought'."

"One less turret than our Dreadnought." Brand, who adheres to patriotism, emphasized.

Stineau couldn't take his eyes off it: "But it's exactly the same with 8 main guns on each side, and this ship looks a little bigger than our Dreadnought, that is, it has more tonnage to strengthen armor and power." Mr. Brand, we are lagging behind! No one can deny this! ”

"It does look powerful." Lieutenant Colonel Clinthian said, holding his somewhat fat belly, "But I don't think this beautiful iron fortress will play any meaningful role in the upcoming events. ”

"What's coming? What's up? Brand asked.

Klincy snapped his fingers beautifully: "Africa, Africa is going to be a good show, I will leave there the day after tomorrow, and I will explain it to you in detail in my letter...... Anyway, you have to wait and see, the crusaders of the new era are going to counterattack. ”

Brand and Stineau looked at each other, as if they didn't understand.

A cannon salute rang out, and puffs of white smoke erupted from the fantastic group of battleships in the distance, making them look more like a mirage jammed by clouds.

Brand and they may not have imagined that in this stormy industrial age, mankind will create a greater and crazier mirage.